Holtwhites Stay Third Despite Close Finish with
Camdenians
25th May 2002
Holtwhites Trinibis v Old Camdenians CC
143 – 10
139 – 8
On a day that looked as though the weather
could spoil the cricket at any moment, both teams were determined
to get a game underway.
With Old Camdenians
winning the toss, Holtwhites Trinibis were inserted onto a
damp but relatively hard wicket. Shah and Hewitt combined well
again to put on a good opening partnership, Hewitt continued with
his rich vein of form before running himself out. After calls of
Yes!, No!, Wait!, Yes! (All from Hewitt himself) found himself
stranded in the middle of the wicket with nowhere to go but to the
pavilion for 51 (Ed - In my defense, there was definitely an easy
second run there and I anticipated Kevin was going to go for it -
but it was his call and by the time he said no, I was too far down
to recover- it's just great being the editor!!!).
Burgess (23) and Evans (24) both made starts
and should have gone on to convert into big scores, but both gave
their wickets away at key times. The inevitable collapse followed,
it wouldn't be the same without one! We managed to limp to 143,
from a rain-reduced 48 overs, however with a damp outfield, this
was a reasonable target off the remaining 42 overs. (Ed - As I
remember we were having conversations about declaring when we
reached 150, as we weren't sure how long the rain was going to
hold off)
Old Camdenians made slow progress mainly
thanks to some tight bowling from Siggy ‘metronome’ Cragwell
and Kojak, aided by good support in the field.
Haddock, under the lid for the first time,
was guided expertly by Donkey, who’s surely the best short-leg
in the country at the moment. Watson took up the reins from Kojak
and bowled well in tandem with Cragwell both finishing with 4
wickets apiece. Watson now moves to over 20 league wickets in just
4 games, a great start to the season.
The Old Camdenians no. 5 batted well to reach
51 not out and made the game the close one that it was. With 20
needed of 2 overs with 2 wickets in hand, Old Camdenians made a
great effort, with some exiting and excellent cricket from both
teams. With Old Camdenians falling short, a close draw was a fair
reflection of the match.
As a footnote, a mention must go to the Old
Camdenians team who stayed and drunk the fixture back, a dying art
in the league scenario some might say. Two of their guys stayed
till gone 11:30, pissed as farts most of us agreed!
(Ed - Just to add to Dave's comments, I'd
like to say that Old Camdenians played the game in the true spirit
of cricket - hard and competitive, but fair, which made for one of
the most enjoyable games of Saturday cricket we have had -and they
were a thoroughly good bunch of lads!)
David Evans
1XI Captain
